WAO, ECUADOR

There are about 2000 Waorani living in the Amazonian region of Ecuador. The Waorani themselves have a keen interest in documenting their language and their culture. In close collaboration with Connie Dickinson, Uboye Gaba, Oswando Nenquimo and Ines Nenquimo are recording, transcribing, translating and analyzing Waorani texts and dialogues.

The collection will consist of transcribed and translated video recordings covering a wide variety of cultural practices and discourse genres ranging from traditional ceremonies and practices to everyday conversation as well as a preliminary lexical database and grammatical sketch. The results of this project will be of interest not only to academics but also to the Waorani who strongly support this project.